March 11, One Year On: The Anchorman

Like millions in Japan, Kenzo Ito’s March 11 changed dramatically the instant the shaking started at 2:46 p.m.

With the magnitude-9.0 earthquake still rumbling through the country, many of those millions, already knowing a massive disaster was taking place, rushed to tune their TV sets to state broadcaster NHK to find out just how bad things really were.

NHK

Kenzo Ito delivered the breaking news of the earthquake while it was happening.

Mr. Ito is the man who told them.

The veteran broadcaster’s main job back then was a mix of reading news on an NHK cable channel and playing classical music as a DJ on an NHK FM radio show. But last March 11 just happened to be his turn to take a shift as the emergency newscaster that NHK maintains round-the-clock — just in case. With the principal news anchor for the day temporarily absent, Mr. Ito stepped up.

In the very first of NHK’s emergency broadcasts, posted here by NHK in an impressive interactive collection of clips and maps placed online ahead of the first anniversary of the disasters, Mr. Ito appears on screen as the TV station breaks away from regular parliamentary coverage.

As a map appears on screen indicating the location of the quake and chimes ring out — a warning to Japanese viewers of incoming emergency news — an intent, but outwardly calm Mr. Ito glances to his left to others in the studio, and begins to speak. “Though we’re in the middle of live-broadcasting the Diet (parliament) session, I’d like to convey news related to an earthquake and tsunami.”

“Our Tokyo studio is also shaking now. Tokyo studio is shaking,” the temporary anchorman repeats, his voice not wavering.

Bereft of the hard hat that soon became standard gear for anchors in the blanket live coverage across all channels that would follow, Mr. Ito reads out the names of areas hit by the quake. “Emergency news on an earthquake came in. Emergency news on earthquake in Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata and Akita.”

In the next shot on the NHK clip, a voice off screen yells “Show a shot of Tokyo!” as the skyline of Shinjuku appears in a shot from the TV station’s Shibuya headquarters, across the greenery of Yoyogi park.

As the camera shakes, Mr. Ito says, “Our Shibuya studio in Tokyo is shaking a lot. Please first protect yourself from things falling off shelves, or from falling things. Please stay in a safe place until the shaking subsides.”

The camera continues to shake. “Do not switch off your TVs and radios. There was a big earthquake around 2:46 p.m. in Tohoku. The intensity was 7 (the maximum on Japan’s own quake-measurement scale) in the north of Miyagi,” Mr. Ito says, going on to give readings for other affected areas.

It was the start of a long day for Mr. Ito and the rest of NHK’s staff (the main newscaster for the day returned to the studio quickly, but Mr. Ito, a member of the team that reported in the field on the Kobe earthquake disaster of 1995, stayed on call to help out in the newsroom.)

Mr. Ito won’t be appearing live on NHK TV news shows on March 11 this year — barring unforeseen emergencies, he has the day off. He’s due on the air March 12 to host a late-night radio show running into the small hours, during which he may reminisce about his experiences last year, according to an NHK official.

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